Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will explain the purpose of the social housing initiative. At that time, the normal process of local authority house construction was in existence and the Government spent approximately €2 billion in social housing initiatives. There was great concern because the rate of inflation was more than 20% on first-time buyers; the rate is 1% or 2% today. It was believed that the Government should introduce a specific affordable housing initiative and that people on local authority rents should be able to avail of it. As part of this, two initiatives were brought forward. One initiative is that most of the developments built in the past few years did not take place under Part V since they had already received planning permission. Only now are planning permissions under Part V taking effect, as the Deputy probably knows. It takes a few years for those with planning permission to build the houses. The Deputy either has his tongue in his cheek or he does not understand. Is he saying that one can buy land today, get planning permission tomorrow, build next week and put a family in there a week later? In some parts of Asia this may work but on this side of the world——

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